by WOW! The AEW 2020 version of Winter Is Coming was easily the greatest and most impactful show in AEW history! Rather than trying to rank everything that happened, it is easier just to walk you through it because there is a lot! If there was ever an episode that would make NXT fans switch over to TNT, this was it!
The shows started off with Orange Cassidy and MJF winning round one of The Dynamite Diamond Ring. As much as I loved this match, I’m so sick of Orange Cassidy getting this huge push. Hangman Page being recruited by The Dark Order makes little to no sense for a man who should be one the promotions biggest stars and top draws. Instead he gets knocked out midway through by Matt Hardy, whom, for whatever reason, appears to be turning heel. Again, not sure about any of that.
Any battle royal is good, and I did enjoy it. I just didn’t agree with whom they booked to go over. Again, not sure of the constant pushing of Orange Cassidy and the teasing of MJF splitting from the Inner Circle this quick. I would have much rather seen both Wardlow and Miro run through the rest and set up a huge match for next week.
This was even more apparent when they used the next segment where Chris Jericho took on Frankie Kazarian to further tease the split of The Inner Circle with more tension between MJF and Sammy G.
I’m starting to think AEW bookers quickly realized the mistake of putting MJF and Wardlow in The Inner Circle and are backing them out. On top of that, Wardlow doesn’t need the rub right now. Even JR mentioned that Wardlow is a future World champ.
Layla Hirsch and Britt Baker put on a solid two segment match as the women’s division slowly starts to improve the past few months. Having some help from NWA and other various top-notch Indy stars has helped. I like where they are going with this but need it to continue to grow for them to go to toe to toe with NXT in the long run.
I love the presence of Abadon in this division to contend with Hikaru Shida. The champ suddenly has multiple threats gunning for her gold, and that is another clear sign that this division is headed in the right direction. Much less Big Swole, Nyla Rose & Kris Statlander, and much more Abadon, Britt Baker and Anna Jay.
I don’t think many will disagree that AEW is the first serious threat to actually compete with WWE since the heyday of WCW. Who was the greatest and most memorable figure in WCW history, Sting! In what had been rumored for a while, finally happened tonight as Sting showed up in AEW.
Taz and the goons that comprise FTW were about to deliver a beatdown to Cody Rhodes and company when Sting showed up to save the day. He didn’t do much other than walk around the ring, but he didn’t have to.
The moment was polarizing and perhaps the signature moment of AEW thus far. It doesn’t matter the capacity or the pace we will see Sting perform at, this is a huge coo for the company and will further help them gain mainstream notoriety. I cannot stress this enough, Sting being here is huge!
Speaking of Taz, what a 20 plus year fall from grace for this guy. More on that later this week, but when you break it down, he comes across as nothing more than a whiny football father whose son isn’t getting enough playing time. I’m not sure why anyone would even take him serious anymore, and that is a real shame because this guy used to be a straight up killer!
As for the main event itself, JR said that Omega came into AEW in 2019 with a lot of hype and hasn’t lived up to it. I thought that was ballsy considering that they had him in a tag team for the first 9 months of 2020. I think Omega has done everything the company has asked him to do, and carried others when he needed to as well. I’m not real sure of that criticism.
Jon Moxley has been the MVP of AEW since his arrival, and tonight’s match with Omega was another instant classic along the way. Even in the loss in which Omega turned heel with TNA Impact Figure Head Don Callis to defeat Moxley, the former Shield member did his job again tonight!
Only one question remains, does Kenny Omega show up on Impact? Sure, as hell sounds like that!
